Ordered

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last Wednesday ordered two Duke Energy gas pipelines to revise the right-of-first-refusal (ROFR) provisions in their tariffs to give firm shippers paying maximum rates the opportunity to review third-party bids for capacity under expiring transportation contracts, even in cases where shippers signal an intention to terminate their contracts.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Wednesday ordered two Duke Energy gas pipelines to revise the right-of-first-refusal (ROFR) provisions in their tariffs to give firm shippers paying maximum rates the opportunity to review third-party bids for capacity under expiring transportation contracts, even in cases where shippers signal an intention to terminate their contracts.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered its staff last Wednesday to convene a technical conference to address Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America’s (NGPL) proposed tariff revisions to its creditworthiness standards, noting that the changes being sought “may be unjust, unreasonable, unduly discriminatory or otherwise unlawful.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered its staff Wednesday to convene a technical conference to address Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America’s (NGPL) proposed tariff revisions to its creditworthiness standards, noting that the changes being sought “may be unjust, unreasonable, unduly discriminatory or otherwise unlawful.”

A Colorado district court last week ordered a Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) affiliate to pay Questar TransColorado nearly $110 million in damages, after it declared as “valid and enforceable” a 1997 agreement and 1998 letter of understanding that allowed Questar Corp. to sell its 50% ownership of its pipeline subsidiary to KMI’s KN TransColorado (KNTC), which owns the other 50%.

A Colorado district court late Monday ordered a Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) affiliate to pay Questar TransColorado nearly $110 million in damages, after it declared as “valid and enforceable” a 1997 agreement and 1998 letter of understanding that allowed Questar Corp. to sell its 50% ownership of its pipeline subsidiary to KMI’s KN TransColorado (KNTC), which owns the other 50%.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) said that despite a four-month, court-ordered computer network shutdown, the government agency has distributed more than $318 million to 32 states during the first six months of 2002. Leading the pack for MMS distributions received so far this year was Wyoming with $164.7 million, New Mexico $88.5 million, Colorado $16.4 million and Utah with $11.1 million. The money represents the states’ cumulative share of revenues collected for mineral production on federal lands located within their borders and from federal offshore oil and gas tracts adjacent to their shores. “This year’s halfway total is less than last year’s record $656 million, but is close to the 2000 figure of $362 million,” said Interior Secretary Gale Norton. “The numbers largely reflect a recent decline in prices of crude oil and natural gas.”

A federal judge in Washington, DC has ordered the Department of Energy (DOE) to turn over secret documents identifying the individuals, companies and groups that Vice President Dick Cheney and his task force met with when developing the Bush administration’s national energy policy last year.

With FERC-ordered mitigation measures on wholesale power prices in the western part of the country set to expire later this year, Commission Chairman Pat Wood on Thursday disclosed that he’s traveling to California this week to, among other things, receive assurances that the region’s market rules and infrastructure are on enough of a solid footing that those caps can be lifted when they expire at the end of September.